2454 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

Evaluation of the Community Plant Health Regime: Final Report
DG SANCO Evaluation Framework Contract Lot 3 (Food Chain)
The CPHR does not generally cover control measures by means of detailed eradication and
management programmes in case of outbreaks with the exception of some organisms harmful
to potatoes (and more recently emergency measures for PWN), although such measures may
be taken by the MS. When eradication of a regulated HO is not possible, MS are required to
take all necessary measures to at least contain it. The scope of the Directive is confined to
movements only and does not explicitly cover the eradication of naturally spreading HOs; this
has implications for the Community financial assistance provided for the control of these
organisms 34 , although it may be difficult to distinguish the way in which spread took place as
these two factors (natural spread and through movement) often work in combination. Some
Council Control Directives (for potato diseases 35 ) are linked to the base Directive since they
regulate detailed control of HOs of a crop (potato).
In the case of findings of new non-listed HOs, MS should carry out a pest risk analysis
(PRA). For organisms considered injurious, both the finding itself and the measures taken to
eliminate/eradicate the HO should be notified to the Commission by the MS concerned. The
Commission discusses the national emergency measures taken by the MS in the Standing
Committee on Plant Health (SCPH), with a view to a decision concerning harmonised EU
measures; following this, the national measures are either expanded to the EU as a whole (as
such or after amendment), or have to be rescinded. EU emergency measures remain in place
until rescinded (i.e. HO is eradicated or no longer controllable) or until the HO is included in
the Directive.
The control and emergency measures are evaluated in a specific thematic case study,
including exemplary evidence from the PWN and Diabrotica virgifera experience (Theme 5).
A fuller description of the current CPHR provisions is provided per each Theme in Annex 1.
2.6 Infrastructure and support activities
No network of EU and National Reference Laboratories (EU - RLs 36 /NRLs) exists in the plant
health domain, contrary to the animal health and food safety domain where such laboratories
are in place. Binding protocols for diagnostic methods do not exist, with the exception of
some harmful organisms of potato for which Control Directives are in place which provide
detailed requirements for detection and diagnosis. It should be noted, however, that, for a
range of organisms, the EPPO and IPPC have issued standards for diagnostic methods and
procedures. As for the advisory function of reference laboratories, the Commission draws
upon the expertise of individual scientists and MS NPPO staff.
34 A strict line is followed for Community financial support to MS expenditures to eradicate and contain HOs.
Financial support is not given for eradication of findings that probably resulted from natural spread; for example,
the cost of eradication of the first findings of Diabrotica virgifera in specific MS was not compensated for by the
Commission because the HO had already occurred in a neighbouring MS.
35 Council Directive 69/464/EEC, Council Directive 93/85/EEC, Council Directive 98/57/EC, and Council
Directive 2007/33/EC.
36 Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty the CRLs (Community Reference Laboratories) are since 1
January 2010 named European Union Reference Laboratories.
Food Chain Evaluation Consortium 33